Gibson's Marketing Tactics and Tom Anderson

[michaelomiya]

Plexi Palace Discussion of Gibson and Anderson's (http://vintageamps.com/PlexiPalaceUBBcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=16&t=005046#000016)

Check out what Gibson's cooking up nowadays. http://www.anubz.com/smilies/pissed.gif

Anyway, "guitarplayaman" had some nice things to say.
Also check out the links posted and the message from Gibson to its retailers. Man, oh man.

TubeTramp is Terry Kilgore from the VanHalen/Pasadena crew (played w/ the DLR band in the 90's).

And you know that "eddyrox" dude:D .........

[tom]

i'm curious, but have made a vow to stay off other forums.

[michaelomiya]

Originally posted by tom
i'm curious, but have made a vow to stay off other forums.

that's OK tom, that's why I posted this stuff.

The rap is that Gibson's muscling dealers like such as Wildwood, forcing them to eliminate advertising of any and all Gibsons from their website. There's also an inference that certain large retailers are being favored over the "boutique", customer-oriented folks, by requiring that these smaller volume stores carry product lines dictated by Gibson.

Well, why carry inventory that is incongruent w/ your intended demographic? That's apparently Gibson's strategy in manhandling the smaller retailer. If they can't deliver on the volume demanded by Gibson, then they won't be "permitted" to carry or to advertise the Gibson line.

Anyway, several plexipalace members posted their disgust at the whole Gibson corporation and also referenced TAG as an example of a company that embraces, rather than antagonizes, its retail and customer base.

Once again, good triumphs over evil!!

[tom]

always, sometimes it just takes a while.

[Classic T]

Thanks for the link to the new Gibson policy thread. Very interesting. I have been aware of this for some time. This and other Gibson quirks are what actually drove me to try some other brands of guitars. In particular, Andersons. So in my case the new "Corporate Policy" has drove me away from Gibson. It was just the icing on the cake of sorts.

I agree with most of the complaints the people have said there. Being the "unproud owner" of two '59 Historic Les Pauls, I can attest to the fact concerning poor setups and having to spend another $300 to $400 bucks on pickups. Not to mention the "cardboard" case with the "use one time and break" latches that is supposed to protect these expensive instruments. Additionally, because of poor QC or total lack thereof, there are some instruments leaving the factory that shouldn't. Poor neck binding installation, poor neck and fret dressing, crappy tuners, muddy pickups, as well as cosmetic issues. When you spend $4K for a guitar one expects a "quality" instrument. I feel Gibson is more interested in quantity than quality these days. In the last 4 years I have purchased 7 guitars. Of all these I have found that there are only three that are actually "quality" guitars. One is a Baker Crucible, the other two are Andersons. When a $1300 (slightly used) Anderson Classic T blows the doors off a 59 Historic Les Paul both in tone and quality it's not hard figure out where to put your money. Wish I would have discovered these Andersons years and thousands of dollars ago.

As for Fender..................I have have a '93 American Standard Strat ($800) that smokes the $2000.00 Custom Shop Strat I have. Big disappointment................ no more Fenders.

I'll get off the soap box now............. :D